


If the other guest won - An Escape the Night AU (Season 1)

by lionheart_xoxo



Series: If the other guest won - An Escape the Night AU [1]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 1920s, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Army, Asphyxiation, Attempted Murder, Battle, Betrayal, Buried Alive, Challenges, Character Death, Clue Solving, Clues, Dark, Dark Magic, Death, Demons, Dinner Party, Dolls, Dreams, Electrocution, Escape the Night AU, Escape the Night with Joey Graceffa, Evil, Exorcisms, Games, Gen, Ghosts, Guns, Hallucinations, Haunted Houses, Horror, House Party, If the other person won, Machines, Mind Games, Monsters, Murder, Mystery, Near Death Experiences, Party, Poison, Poisoning, Psychological Trauma, Puzzles, Riddles, Russian Roulette, Spirits, Survival, Survivor Guilt, Torture, Victory, War, YouTube, YouTube Premium, Youtube red, based on Escape the Night, clue finding, mannequins, mansion, murder journals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-07-18 21:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16127417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionheart_xoxo/pseuds/lionheart_xoxo
Summary: Suppose Justine had been fast enough to save Andrea from the Ungodly Machine. Or Matt was killed by the Death Journal instead of Glozell. How would the rest of the Escape the Night Season 1 challenges have played out? And ultimately: who would have survived instead?An Escape the Night AU where the other person wins each challenge, showing how that would affect the rest of the night.





	1. The Ungodly Machine (Winner: The Gambler)

**Author's Note:**

> Basically how I'm doing this:
> 
> \- Whenever someone in this fic wins a challenge, they (and their partner, if applicable) will then take the place of whoever originally won that challenge in canon (example: Justine wins the Ungodly Machine challenge and takes the place of Eva, Eva takes the place of Justine and Andrea takes the place of Lele, Lele dies instead of Andrea). Then so on.
> 
> \- I'll only be writing out the challenges where people were eliminated, (ie: not the Circus challenge or any of the side challenges. Also not Shane's death, because I feel like that wasn't really a proper challenge, it was more of a side puzzle that they didn't solve in time). Unfortunately, this means that a lot of context leading up to each challenge will be left out. For this reason, I would recommend that you watch Season 1 of Escape the Night before reading (so that it actually, uh, makes sense? xD)
> 
> \- I understand some of these scenarios may be a little unrealistic, but I've done my best to make the events leading up to each outcome as plausible as possible :))
> 
> \- After I post Season 1, I'm planning on writing (and posting) AUs for Seasons 2 and 3, so stay tuned! *Note that I don't have a specific upload schedule for this. I'll just be posting each part as I write it ^-^
> 
> First Escape the Night inspired story, hope you guys like it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justine and Eva are fighting to save Andrea and Lele respectively. Against all odds, the Gambler manages to pull through.
> 
> Escape the Night AU where Andrea survives the Ungodly Machine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First Happyfell, then this. I swear not everything I write is angst... xD

The timer started. The two girls scanned over their instructions as Andrea watched on anxiously from inside her tank.

“What?” Eva was clearly confused, staring at her manual with her eyebrow raised. “This is not even in in English.”

The Fixer glanced over at Lele, who was obviously freaking out. She appeared to be muttering some sort of prayer to herself. Seeing how Justine was handling the situation, she felt inclined to follow suit.

“It’s just all these weird symbols,” the Gambler complained.

_Come on, Justine…_

From where she stood, it looked as though the girls were trying to figure out a combination of levers and figure out which direction each one was meant to go in.

“D-13,” Justine muttered to herself, pushing her third lever into position. Nothing happened. “Do I gotta push harder?”

Andrea sighed audibly. Justine turned to her, a dumbfounded expression on her face.

“Girl, I’m _trying."_

Arthur’s voice rang out through the basement.

“Eva has solved the first step.”

“Yes!” Lele cried triumphantly from inside her tank. “Eva, you _got_ this!”

Andrea turned to her partner as Eva moved onto her next task. “Oh, we’re in deep sh-”

“Okay, but!” Justine cut her off, before letting out a cry of frustration.

“I’m gonna die in here,” the Fixer complained flatly. Justine got even more flustered from this comment.

“I”m doing exactly what this is telling me to do!” she snapped irritably, before the lightbulbs finally lit up on her control panel, causing both her and Andrea to jump.

“Oh,” Andrea allowed herself to breathe, her faith in Justine's abilities restored. She clapped her hands together. “Okay.”

Now Justine was onto the bolt section of the challenge. She plunged her hand into the water. Judging by her face, Andrea could tell she was struggling. 

“Don’t give up!” the Fixer cried. “You can do it! Come on!”

“Girl, you wanna give me a hand?” a struggling Justine called out to Eva. To Andrea’s relief, she was still clutching the clearly stuck bolt. “Did you actually get this bolt out?”

Before Eva could respond, Lele cried out a frantic string of protests.

“No, no no _no!_ ” she spluttered. “Don’t tell her _anything!_ ”

“Just unscrew it,” Eva replied without thinking, before getting back to work on the bolt. “Take your glove off maybe.”

“EVA!” Lele cried, causing the Journalist to reconsider giving Justine the hint. She paused, before finally pulling her frozen hand, along with the bolt, out of the water.

Justine was close on her heels.

“Hallelujah!” she cheered, whipping her bolt out of the water. “The bolt has been removed!”

“Come on! You’re almost there!” Andrea cried from inside the tank. She watched on as Justine wrenched the main power board open.

“Oh boy…”

A mess of colourful wires gleamed back at the Gambler. Sighing, she got to work.

“What the heck is _this?_ ” she complained.

Meanwhile, Eva looked as though she was getting more and more confused by the second. She’d had such a huge head start and now Justine was catching up.

Lele’s confident, excited, almost cocky expression from a few minutes earlier had dissolved. In its place were stress, panic and frustration.

“What are you _doing_ , Eva?” she fired at her partner. “They’re catching up!” At this rate, it looked like the Hustler was about to shatter the glass with how hard she was pressing against it, yelling out unnecessary commentary to the already stressed Journalist.

However, Andrea continued cheering on Justine. The Gambler had gotten two of the four wires in but looked puzzled as to where the third blue wire went.

“Okay, have you figured out where blue goes?” she called out to her opponent.

“No, no, _no!_ ” Lele shouted frantically. “Eva, what are you _doing?_ Stop helping them!”

To Lele's relief, it appeared Eva was now focussing solely on solving the puzzle. However, seeing how close Justine was getting to finishing caused her to snap.

“Omigod, _Eva!_ ” Andrea heard her cry out sharply, now more frustrated than ever. “Please, _try!_ ”

This comment definitely rubbed Eva up the wrong way.

“I _am_ trying!” she fired back.

“You’re  _not_ trying! Look how _close_ she is!”

As the girls continued to bicker, to Andrea’s relief, Justine had figured out where the second last wire went. Now, blue was the last one left.

_She’s going to save me, she’s going to save me, omigod she’s going to save me._

It clicked into place.

Sparks flew off the control centre as thick, black smoke flooded Lele’s tank within seconds. Eva’s head fell into her hands as Andrea’s door popped open. Shellshocked, she stood there for a moment gaping, hands over her mouth, before shakily stepping out.

 _Justine did it_ …

She was alive.

Arthur stepped forward.

“Justine has done it,” he said, walking over to them. He turned solemnly to Eva, though his voice didn’t sound sorry at all. “Eva, I’m sorry. Lele did not survive.”

He still pronounced it “Lee-lee”, adding to the emotional weight currently crushing Eva. Andrea decided to take it upon herself to correct the butler. If he was going to remember the Hustler, he may as well remember her by her name.

“It’s ‘Lei-lei’,” she corrected him gently. He didn’t respond, but continued on.

“You’ve caused the machine to malfunction, and it will now produce the artefact.”

On cue, the ‘artifact’ popped out of the machine in a neat little compartment. Justine snatched it up, still buzzing from her victory.

“We did it!” she cheered, squeezing Andrea excitedly. The Fixer sighed with relief.

“I knew you could do it!” she affirmed her partner. Then, noticing Eva’s clear distress, the two girls pulled her into a comforting hug.

“Let’s get out of here,” Justine finally said, pulling away from the group. When they were ready, they made their way back to the lounge, where they were met with mixed reactions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave your thoughts in the comments! Next chapter will probably be posted pretty soon as, once again, 90% of this is already written in advance lmao. The votes are stacked against Eva and Tim. One of them will be condemned to a brutal fate.
> 
> (edit: i was so excited to post this that i TOTALLY didn't proofread and am now noticing sooo many errors and typos o ops...hopefully ive fixed at least 90% of them lmao)


	2. Buried Alive (Winner: The Journalist)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the group faces the horrible task of burying one of their friends alive, they're divided on who that should be. While one half of the group thinks it's Eva's time to go, the other half wants Tim gone. However, a swing vote named Oli White may be the deciding vote between who lives and who dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the chapter where things start to switch up a bit. Hopefully, these upcoming outcomes are somewhat plausible (I've done my best to switch things up a little to that they make sense as proper outcomes)
> 
> Anyways, enjoy(?)! :))) (also mild language warning to all the chirren, who tbh probably shouldn't be reading stuff this dark ANYWAY but like, yanno)

The group split once again to discuss.

"Look, I think it's time for Eva to go," said Glozell with a shrug.

“She _still_ hasn’t told up where she went with Shane, has she?” Andrea asked, prompting nods and mutters of agreement from everyone else in the little cluster. Oli shook his head, however.  
  
"We’re talking about putting someone in a _coffin_ , though!" he reminded the Fixer, pointing at the coffin just a few feet away from them. She shrugged sheepishly.

“I’m just saying…”  
  
" _Someone_ has to go!" GloZell snapped at Oli. "Do _you_ want to go?"  
  
" _No!_ " the Big Game Hunter replied, disgusted. "I do _not_ want to go!" 

Glozell’s words ran right over the top of his.

"It needs to be her!"

"It's either her or _all_ of us." Tim added. Andrea nodded.

“And like, _who_ loses to Justine of all people?” the Fixer added. This was met with several other murmurs of agreement. “Like, she was over there doing all that stuff for Shane and solving all the clues, and then as soon as it comes to a challenge, she gets in a yelling match with the girl she’s trying to save and lets her die?”

Oli shook his head again, before deciding he’d heard enough. He went and joined the other group, consisting of Joey, Justine, Sierra, Matt and the clearly stressed Journalist, Eva.

“You guys believe me, don’t you?” she asked her group hopefully, eyeing them all one at a time. “It’s not me! I’m _not_ working with the Evil! I tried, I really did, you _know_ I did!”

Oli sighed, turning to Eva. “They’re all voting for you, you know.”

Eva nodded sadly. “I know.”

“Well,” Matt thought to himself, “who else deserves to die?”

Sierra’s “Who’s been acting sketchy?” overlapped with the latter part of Matt’s question.

“You know who I think?” Justine replied pointedly, though still clearly stressed by the prospect of stuffing someone into a coffin. “I say Tim.”

Joey nodded. “I say Tim as well.”

“You know _why_?” She went on. “Because I honestly feel like he’s been out to get us the entire time. Like, thank God I won that challenge because honestly, I think it’d be me on the block otherwise.”

“So should we all vote Tim, then?” Eva asked, thankful for a lifeline. Her group’s response was washed out by Arthur calling the vote. However, a few nods in her direction was enough to convince her that they were unanimous. Of course she felt guilty about writing the Mobster’s name down, but at this point, she was literally fighting for her life. She’d write down _anyone_ ’s name to save her and her friends. 

So she did.

After everyone had gone up, the butler shuffled the names in his hat. Eva squeezed Sierra’s hand a Justine and Joey stood by her as well. Tim stood off to the side beside Justine. She avoided eye contact with him. If everyone in her group voted how she hoped they had, then she should be okay.

_It’s six to three. The majority is on my side._

_I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine._

A few stray tears threatened to fall from the Journalist’s eyes, but she stared determinedly forward.  

A name was pulled. Arthur’s eyes scanned the crowd of anxious faces. When they landed on Tim, it was enough of a hint to prompt gasps from the group.

“Timothy.”

“Okay,” Tim stepped back, laughing to himself. “This better be a joke, y’all, because I _swear--_ ”

“ _Who_ didn't stick to the plan?” Glozell shot at the group. “Y’all _knew_ who to vote for.”

“Are you _sure_ it’s Tim?” Andrea asked incredulously. “Like, did you read it right?”

The butler flipped the voting slip around, clearly displaying Tim’s name.

“Well, son of a _bitch._ ” The Mobster kicked a cloud of dirt into the air. He immediately turned on Eva’s group. “Right, I _know_ it was you guys who voted for me. The _hell_ what that for?”

“Well, we had to vote for _someone!_ ” Oli replied exasperatedly.

“YOU _FLIPPED_ ON US, OLI!” Glozell snapped, her strong voice cutting through the air. “We could’ve _easily_ had it four-five, but you just _had_ to swing against us!” Accusations flew around the group like fireflies.

“Well, I just didn’t think--”

“Zip-zap-zappity-boop-bap- _boop!_ ” Glozell cut off Oli’s defence mid-sentence.

“Wait, guys, stop!” Andrea’s voice rose above the shouting that had flared up. “Look, I don’t think we can do this. I don’t think we can _kill_ someone!”

“I mean, we _have_ to,” Sierra replied with a shrug, her arms crossed.

“Well, you guys seemed perfectly fine with killing _me_ a few minutes ago!” Eva fired back at the pair comprising of the Mobster and the Fixer.

Tim shook his head.

“Well you bitches aren’t killing _me!_ ” he scoffed, no longer smiling. All hints of regular DeLaGhetto humour had disappeared.

“We’ve got to do this. Sorry, Tim.” Joey said. A few people began crowding him, prompting a sharp response.

“ _No!”_

Tim shoved past the group, taking off into the forest. This was met with cries of alarm.

“Hey, hey, _hey!_ ” someone cried out.

“Stop him!”

In a heartbeat, Joey and a very reluctant Matt were after him.

Marvin, the groundskeeper, appeared from behind a tree, tackling the Mobster to the ground. Once the other two had caught up, the three of them began dragging Tim back towards the coffin.

“I’m sorry, Tim!” Matt said repeatedly, his heart obviously breaking. “Sorry, we gotta do this. We gotta…”

“Joey, no!”

Now Andrea had caught up, blocking their path to the coffin. “Joey! Guys, wait. We _can’t_ do this!”

“Andrea, we _have_ to!” Sierra repeated, intervening.

“ _Sierra!_ ”

“We _have_ to!” Justine now added, joining in on the shouting.

“Guys--Justine! _No!_ ”

“Girl, I saved your _life!_ ”

The two girls held the distressed Fixer back as Marvin, Joey and Matt, now also aided by Eva herself, began forcing a struggling Tim into the coffin. Oli paced back and forth in the background, hands behind his head, clearly bothered by what was happening. Glozell kept glancing back and forth between Tim and Eva. Although she was obviously disappointed by the votes not going her way, Eva could tell she was at least thankful that it wasn’t her.

“Don’t just _stand_ there!” Tim cried out to the bystanders as his friends-turned-executioners began finally forcing the lid shut. The Journalist could tell that the Mobster was obviously not going down without a fight. “Y’all get me out of here RIGHT _NOW!_ ”

“Look, we’re sorry, Tim,” Joey repeated, raising his voice over Tim’s cries of protest. “Sorry.”

“ANDREA!” the Mobster shouted.

“Oh God, that is _horrible_ ,” Justine shuddered from the sideline where she and Sierra continued to hold back a struggling Fixer.

“You guys, this is _sick!_ ” she cried as the rest of the group finally slammed the lid shut on Tim, who was still shouting. She squirmed in Justine and Sierra’s arms. “Are you guys _crazy?_ This is _not_ who we are! We’re _YouTubers!_ ”

“Let’s get him in there,” Arthur calmly instructed as he, Marvin and Joey hoisted the coffin up and dropped it heavily into the hole.

“Everyone grab a shovel,” Eva was doing everything in her power to ignore the screams coming from the half-buried coffin. She scooped up piles of dirt, throwing them into the hole, each one hopefully drowning out the sounds.

“Sorry, Tim,” Oli said regretfully. “We gotta do this.”

Justine and Sierra finally let go of Andrea. The Fixer stood to the side, staring heartbrokenly at the grave as the remaining guests now helped re-bury the exhumed coffin

“Lalalalalalalalala…” Glozell stuck her fingers in her ears, singing to herself to block out the still-audible cries of the Mobster.

“Is Andrea gonna help?” someone asked over the mixed sounds of screaming, Glozell’s singing and metal shovels scraping against the dry dirt. Eva’s heart panged for the poor girl. She’d just been thrown into a near-death situation that she’d barely survived, and now her best friend was being buried alive right in front of her.

Andrea had been there when Eva lost Lele, it was the least Eva could do now to stick up for her, even if she _had_ been one of the people plotting to get rid of her.

“Guys, just lay off Andrea, okay?” she said firmly. “We’ve all got a shovel, anyway.”

“Well, she should at least shovel _something_.”

Andrea huffed angrily, crossing her arms in exasperation. Before Eva could offer any other defence, Justine hushed the group.

“Wait, do you guys hear that?” she asked, pausing to observe the silence. “I think he’s stopped.”

No one said anything. The group stood in eerie silence as the cold night wrapped around them. Andrea cried quietly into her hands as the others quickly recovered the second artifact.

“See, it was all worth it, Andrea,” Justine affirmed gently. As they all made their way back to the lounge, Eva found herself walking next to Oli, who clearly still carried some kind of guilt.

“Thanks for voting with me,” was all she could bring herself to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, looking at the running order for this fic, Andrea is gonna have such a rough time. Genuinely feel sorry for her .-. #AndreaProtectionSquad
> 
> Next chapter: Apparently, despite Joey and Andrea being sent into the Perverse Games, a twist sees that it's in fact between Glozell and Matt. Who did the Savant and the Fixer choose to betray? (i mean, judging by the nature of this fic it's pretty obvious who they picked, but shh let me have my cliche rhetorical questions)


	3. The Perverse Games (Winner: The Jazz Singer)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joey and Andrea may have been voted in to battle it out in the Perverse Games, but in a twist, perhaps the two really fighting for their lives are in fact Matthew Haag and Glozell Green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, okay, so I haven't posted this in like a bajillion years (sorry .-.) I had a lot on and not a lot of time to really nail this. I didn't want to post this in a hurry like I did with the Ungodly Machine chapter, so I really took the time out to make sure this was a really good chapter for you all ^-^ (hopefully the next chapter will be posted sometime in the next ten years also)

“It’s his house,” Glozell explained calmly to everyone in the lounge, “He has to know what’s going on, so I voted for him. Sorry.” 

“It seems odd,” Eva admitted. “Like, why would you invite a bunch of people over if you didn’t know anything about the house?” Glozell nodded along. It was obvious to the Jazz Singer; Joey invited them all and now they’re all being killed off. It was him. He was behind all this.

Whilst all this had been going on, Matt had gotten suspiciously quiet. Just five minutes ago he’d been going on about why Lele Pons had been the one working with the Evil (“You just don’t like her!” was Glozell’s response). But now, all that was coming from him were several strange, throaty noises.

Justine noticed this first, being the nearest to him.

“Is he okay?” she asked, pointing at Matt. “Are you okay?”

No response. His eyes were empty. The Gambler waved a gloved hand in front of his face, but all she got in response were several more strange noises.

“What in the hell…?” Glozell asked, equally as confused. Still nothing. All eyes were on Matt. Then all of a sudden, drops of blood began spilling from the edges of the Professor’s mouth.

“Oh my lord…” was Glozell’s last comment before the convulsions began.

The room erupted into screams.

“OH  _ LORD… _ !” she screamed in horror, sitting back as far away from Matt as possible. Her eyes were wide with terror as Oli and Justine raced over to aid him. Sierra watched on, stunned into silence, hands over her mouth.

“ _ NO! _ ” Eva cried, clearly distressed.

“Help!” Oli shouted. “Someone  _ help! _ ”

“Omigod, what do we do…what do we _do?!_ ” Justine frantically repeated, still leaning over the furiously thrashing body of Matt. It was as if some unknown force had taken hold of him, slowly draining the life out of him with every convulsion.

“Omigosh,” Sierra was quietly repeating to herself. “Omigosh.”

Glozell was still screaming. She slapped her hands over her mouth. No one had any idea what was happening to him. 

He was silently screaming, clawing at everything around him in some desperate attempt to regain control over himself. 

And then it all stopped.

“Omigod…” Justine stood well back as Oli reached for Matt’s pulse. He shook his head, sighing.

“He’s dead.”

Glozell’s stomach dropped. Matthew Haag, dead, right in front of her.

_ But he didn’t go into the challenge! It should’ve been one of them! _

_ Joey Graceffa, I swear to the Lord Almighty…  _

Right on cue, Joey and Andrea ran back into the lounge, clutching the third artifact. Glozell wasted no time. She marched over to them as the others began frantically explaining the situation.

“Guys!” Eva wailed. “Matt  _ died! _ ”

“It was exactly like what happened with Shane,” Oli explained. “He choked.”

“But longer,” Justine continued. 

“What the  _ hell  _ did you do, Joey?!” the Jazz Singer demanded. The Savant stared back at her, his face reminiscent of a helpless, innocent puppy. But Glozell knew the Savant was anything  _ but  _ innocent.

“We didn’t do  _ anything! _ ” he lied. Despite his acting skills being  _ very  _ moving, his puppy eyes weren’t convincing  _ her  _ any time soon.

“ _ Zip-zap-zaba-bib-ba-boo! _ ” Glozell was tired of his excuses, his lies, his endless attempts at pulling on everyone’s heartstrings. She was  _ over  _ it. 

“Wait, what  _ happened? _ ” Sierra squeaked, still clearly behind. Her pretty face was clouded with fear and confusion.

“What happened with the Perverse Games?” Oli continued.

Joey and Andrea exchanged glances. 

“There were...mannequins…” Joey began, shaking his head, as Andrea took over.

“It was  _ perverted! _ ”

“Wait,” Eva’s mind was ticking. “You went upstairs, and your name was called because Glozell put you up there…” The Journalist’s deduction was cut off by Joey.

“ _ You _ voted for me?!” he gasped, turning to the Jazz Singer, who’s indignant response was drowned out by numerous voices all talking at once.

“And now Matt’s dead!” the Journalist concluded, evidently thinking what Glozell knew anyone in their right mind would be.

“Can’t you guys  _ see?”  _ she snapped, pointing harshly at the object in the Fixer’s hands, “ _ They _ got the artifact, so  _ someone else _ had to die!” The group stood in stunned silence as Glozell went on with her tirade. “I said it before and I’ll say it again!  _ Joey  _ is the killer,  _ he  _ went in there and got one of  _ us  _ killed instead! It should’ve been him, and if we don’t get rid of him next, we are  _ all  _ gonna die!”

“Well guess  _ what? _ ” Joey finally snapped at Glozell, finally dropping the act. “It was either  _ him _ ,” he pointed at Matt’s lifeless corpse, still sprawled out on the rug, “or  _ YOU! _ ” 

“ _ Joey! _ ” Andrea gasped. 

Glozell paused. She knew it. She knew Joey was the one working with the Evil. But somehow, the others couldn’t see it. She began to fire up again. However, Joey shut her down. “ _ Yeah! _ So shut up!”

Now it was Andrea’s turn to chime in.

“Look, he told me not to say anything,” She shot a harsh glance towards the Savant, before calmly explaining her side. “I didn’t want him to pick you, Glozell, so I told him to pick Matt.” This was, as always, met with several voices demanding answers. “Look, I just figured that so far, Matt’s hasn’t really stepped up much. We need people who are going to contribute.” She stepped back. “So, sorry.”

“I don’t believe it,” were Glozell’s final words on the matter, before resorting to shaking her head, death-glaring the Savant. He had to be next. He was the one working with the Evil. 

She knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, things sure are getting interesting now. Next up: Glozell and Sierra have been tasked with the exorcism of a demon from which only one will return.


End file.
